Well I certainly did not plan to have to review as much as we had to today involving pennies and nickels. I planned to quickly review and work more with dimes but they seemed to need a lot of reinforcement after the week’s break. So I decided to settle down and make sure the students have a thorough understanding of pennies and nickels before moving on. Today I had separate stacks of pennies and nickels and gave the students two bowls to separate the two different coins. That seemed easy enough but then I had them work in groups and one student would trade 5 pennies for 1 nickel from the other student. They continued this activity until they had traded all their coins. It seemed to really be working so I sort of turned it into a race to see who could trade all their coins first. It got very exciting and a little wild but very worthwhile.
After a lot of thought I have decided that I still have a lot of great activities involving money that I would like to do. So I am going to pick out a much simpler activity to use for the videotape and then continue on with this unit for the next couple of weeks. I don’t feel comfortable jamming all the activities in this week just so I can videotape the certain activity that I wanted to. I will still follow my inquiry plan but it will be on a lower level that what I had planned. I hope as teachers everyone will understand the need to be flexible and adapt the plan to best fit the student’s needs.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Engaging in Inquiry Plan Week 2
It has been a busy, busy week at Owen Co. Primary School. We give a practice test which gives lots of pertinent information as to how students will score on “the big test” at the end of the year as well as it being the week before spring break. It was difficult getting my lessons in, in order to stay on schedule with finishing my video.
I started from scratch with sorting and examining pennies and nickels. We did crayon rubbings of each side of the coin. This activity was a big hit with the kids! After deciding they could really identify these coins we moved on to counting pennies. One day I had index cards with values between 1 and 8 cents written on them. They would take turns drawing cards and counting out the correct number of pennies. As they successfully completed pennies we continued the activity with nickels. The students are making great progress and really understanding the value of pennies and nickels. Trading in pennies for nickels still seems to be difficult. They still like to have more coins (5 pennies) that to have 1 nickel.
I also have a problem of the day and as students enter they room we quickly solve this problem as a group. Quickly is the word since I only have a brief time with these groups daily. I still have a ton of activities I can do working with money. I am a little stressed about finishing this unit and getting the video done by the deadline but I seem to work well under pressure.
It has been a great Easter starting the day with church activities and lunch with family. I am working on this as we are driving to Blowing Rock, NC to visit my husband’s family. I think most of you have already had spring break so you know how it feels to have a much needed break. I plan on shopping, relaxing and eating a lot of good food. Then it is back to work for 8 more weeks after I get back. Have a great week!
I started from scratch with sorting and examining pennies and nickels. We did crayon rubbings of each side of the coin. This activity was a big hit with the kids! After deciding they could really identify these coins we moved on to counting pennies. One day I had index cards with values between 1 and 8 cents written on them. They would take turns drawing cards and counting out the correct number of pennies. As they successfully completed pennies we continued the activity with nickels. The students are making great progress and really understanding the value of pennies and nickels. Trading in pennies for nickels still seems to be difficult. They still like to have more coins (5 pennies) that to have 1 nickel.
I also have a problem of the day and as students enter they room we quickly solve this problem as a group. Quickly is the word since I only have a brief time with these groups daily. I still have a ton of activities I can do working with money. I am a little stressed about finishing this unit and getting the video done by the deadline but I seem to work well under pressure.
It has been a great Easter starting the day with church activities and lunch with family. I am working on this as we are driving to Blowing Rock, NC to visit my husband’s family. I think most of you have already had spring break so you know how it feels to have a much needed break. I plan on shopping, relaxing and eating a lot of good food. Then it is back to work for 8 more weeks after I get back. Have a great week!
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